mike petraglia

A costly lesson learned as Dolphins expose Patriots

If that's what January is going to look like, it's going to be a short postseason for the Patriots.

Too many dropped passes in the clutch. The inability to stop a team on fourth down when you have them dead to rights. A kick out of bounds after a go-ahead touchdown.

Sure, it's a one-game snapshot. But like Tom Brady said earlier in the week when asked about miracle comeback after miracle comeback, "You just put a lot of pressure on yourself to do it. You'd like to have some cushion there because it's not always going to turn out where you can be perfect that last three or four minutes of the game."

Well, when it doesn't turn out just right like it didn't Sunday, you get from Brady a 60-second press conference that ends with him saying, "We made plenty of [expletive] plays," before walking off the podium to the team bus for the airport.

The Patriots were that perfect fourth-quarter team against New Orleans, Denver and Cleveland. Sunday, they weren't in the friendly confines of Gillette Stadium. They were on the hot and humid turf of Sun Life Stadium, and this time it was the Patriots who melted in a 24-20 loss that robbed them of much more than a hat and T-shirt.

With a win, they would be AFC East champs and the No. 1 seed, turning their thoughts to putting their nemesis Baltimore Ravens on the brink of playoff extinction next Sunday. With a win, they would be relishing in the glow of another late comeback win, adding to their confidence that -- no matter the hurdle -- they're capable of winning a game under any conditions.

Instead, we saw a late-season glimpse of what could be if the Patriots don't play with fire.

The Patriots have been living a charmed life for most of the season, with Brady engineering miracle comebacks against the Saints, Broncos and Browns. On Sunday, the Patriots were 1-for-4 in the red area, including field goals at the end of 15-play drives in the first and fourth quarters. On Sunday, Stephen Gostkowski missed from inside 50 yards for the first time in 22 such field goal attempts. On Sunday, Shane Vereen touched the ball only four times in 78 offensive snaps. On Sunday, the Patriots pass defense looked out of place.

Still, the Patriots had their chance to do it again Sunday. Three timeouts and 80 yards with 75 seconds was more than enough for Brady.

And everyone watching was thinking Brady was in the midst of another comeback when he surgically fired pass after pass down the field to Danny Amendola. Connections of 11, 12 and 24 yards between Brady and Amendola had the Patriots down to the Miami 31 with 37 seconds left.

Another pass of 12 yards to Edelman and the Patriots were at the Miami 19 with 27 seconds to go. This was going to happen again, right?

Then a funny thing happened. Amendola dropped a perfectly placed Brady pass that would've been the winning touchdown. Julian Edelman, in the midst of another game that makes everyone understand why they let Wes Welker walk, couldn't come up with a pass as it appeared he may have mistimed his jump.

Michael Hoomanawanui had a chance with 12 seconds left and that chance sailed through his hands incomplete in the end zone. Then, on fourth down, Brady looked off Edelman, who had man-to-man coverage on the outside, and threw in the end zone for Austin Collie. Pass picked off by Michael Thomas, a cornerback who came off the 49ers practice squad this week and made three huge defensive plays down the stretch, including two on New England's last-gasp effort.

All the little things that had gone so well in their heart-stopping wins suddenly weren't there when the Patriots needed it most.

"We came up short in every area," Bill Belichick said. "I mean, nothing was really good enough. Yeah, there were some good things, but nothing was really good enough. We've just got to do a better job all the way around -- offense, defense, special teams, coaching, playing, blocking, tackling, throwing, catching, everything.

"We've just got to do a better job. I don't think any of it was bad, but it just wasn't good enough. Or if they were a little bit better, however you want to look at it."

The Patriots were looking at a No. 1 seed before their defense let them down in the final two minutes.

"I don't really know or care anything about that," Belichick said of their potential playoff seeding. "Just trying to win the game we're playing that week. This week it's Baltimore. So that's all we're concerned about, I don't really care about the rest of it. There's nothing we can do about it."

Sunday's lesson in South Florida is that if you're expecting to win all the time under duress, you're going to wear down.

There was no better example of this than when New England couldn't get off the field on fourth-and-5 when the AFC East title was in their grasp.

Sunday looked like a day when missing Vince Wilfork, Jerod Mayo and Tommy Kelly finally caught up to the Patriots. The Patriots did get four sacks on Ryan Tannehill, including one on Miami's final drive forcing a third-and-16 at the Miami 34.

But the Patriots allowed a short pass of 11 yards over the middle to Brian Hartline on the next play and then a screen pass to Charles Clay that was five yards from the first-down marker. But Clay made three Patriots miss and snaked his way for six yards and a game-extending first down.

Tannehill finished 25-of-37 on the day for 312 yards and three touchdowns. On the final drive, Tannehill was 6-of-8 and accounted for all 60 yards after Gostkowski set up the Dolphins at their own 40 with a kickoff out of bounds.

On Sunday, the Patriots were the ones making all the key mistakes at the wrong time.

For one day, the Dolphins made the Patriots look very vulnerable. And at the end of the day, the Patriots were left wondering what might have been if they had just made the plays at the end of the game they've been making all season.

Greg and Chris talk with Mike Reiss from ESPN Boston in hour 2 of NFL Sunday to discuss a variety of offseason happenings with the Pats and throughout the league. Greg and Chris also get into the NFL Draft and where Mariota and Winston will go.

Mike Reiss calls the guys to talk about the offseason news for the Pats. He talks about the Pats/Jets tampoering fiasco, free agency, where he sees Ridley and Connolly ending up, if the Patriots would be interested in Reggie Wayne and more.

In the first hour of the show, Greg and Chris discuss the news coming out of the owners' meetings this week and rule changes. Belichick's blow-up over the league not wanting to spend on endzone cameras was well documented and the guys react. They also talk about the Jets ridiculous tampering charges, free agents still lingering out there, where Stevan Ridley will land and the RB position in New England. Dickerson and Price briefly discuss the adventures of Tom Brady before being joined by WEEI.com's Mike Petraglia to talk all things Pats in the offseason.

Flannery joins Mut to break down the Isaiah Thomas trade to Boston and what it means for the Celtics this season and in the future. Paul also chats with Mut about the other deals that happened at the NBA's trading deadline

Mut, Tomase, and Bradford kick things off talking about Shane Victorino taking offense to people reading into some comments he made about trading for Cole Hamels. They also discuss Blake Swihart and how soon he could be up if Christian Vazquez starts the season on the DL.

Joe Kelly joined the Hot Stove show where he talked about being ready for his next spring training start after a biceps ailment forced him out of his last outing, he talks about his NCAA brackets and how teammate Wade Miley has a perfect bracket still.

Peter Chiarelli joined the Sunday Skate crew to talk about the Bruins playoff push heading into the final handful of games of the regular season. Chiarelli talked about avoiding some of the overly negative feedback he gets while realizing that the team does have real issues. He discusses what went down at the trade deadline and if he was happy with the outcome, Lucic having a down year and underperforming, the salary cap and if he considers it as big of an issue as it's been made out to be and what the future holds for the team.

It's a big hour #2 for the Sunday Skate dudes - they talk about the B's defenseman and what the future looks like at that position, with both moves the team can make and younger guys in the AHL. They also get into the Bruins philosophy on bringing guys up and sending them back down and how players deal with that. Finally, the boys are joined by Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli to discuss EVERYTHING.

The Sunday Skate crew gets the show going discussing the Bruins big, impressive victory over the NY Rangers yesterday. What can you take from that game? According to LB - Lyndon Byers - who called the guys from the road, not a lot. LB drops a dime on what was going on with the Rangers yesterday. DJ and Joe discuss Claude's lines and groupings and the importance of Ryan Spooner. They also get into Lucic, his contributions this year and if he can turn things around.

With the Wells report seemingly wrapping up (we hope), Tim and Lou got to talking about possible fines and punishments the Patriots must face. It's possible that the Patriots will face a small fine, but should they take that laying down? The conversation brings out a little passion from BOTH sides.